third wave of music

Correction

My friend Brandon pointed out the following to me:

I just want to point out what you said about audio quality being better on vinyl, while I agree with that, it’s only true for music that is ORIGINALLY recorded on analog equipment as well. If it is recorded on digital equipment and transferred to analog for a vinyl pressing, the original flaws in digital recording are still in tact.

He is correct (at least as far as I’m aware). This an issue for the “indie” artist since the easiest and cheapest way to record is often on a laptop, not in analog. As such, by putting out vinyl they would actually be degrading sound quality and since most vinyl releases are by “indie” artists, this is a problem.

This does not, however, redeem, CDs. What I said earlier still stands, that they should be on their way out.

Salute Your Solution?

I sort of like what the Raconteurs did with their “unannounced” release date but I don’t really understand the point of it.  I absolutely think that disregard for first week sales is an important step for the music industry but I don’t quite understand the point of keeping the entire project secret until *surprise* album.  I suppose Radiohead did something similar but their *surprise* was a part of their project, it helped to garner pre-orders.  The Raconteurs?  They released in all formats at the same time.  I don’t see the point in the *surprise* if you’re going to do that.  If they had been keeping their fans abreast on the progress of the album (or even the existence of) they would have had a lot more buzz and momentum going into the project.  I don’t think it really hurt them much I just see it as unnecessary.

Packaging

With the ubiquity of digital music these days, if you’re going to put out a physical product (CD, LP, Flash Drive, box set, anything) then you’d better make sure that the music is packaged in a manner that is interesting and worthwhile.  If music is free (it is) then you don’t sell the music, you sell the packaging (at least with physical releases).  So why when I buy albums I get boring, generic, uninspired, and uninteresting packaging? 

So few bands/lables pay attention to the physical packaging as they should. Some that DO:

- …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - tons of great original artwork by frontman Conrad Keely

 - anything Phil Elverum puts out

 - Rhino Records - The No Thanks! Box Set was fantastic.  Most re-released stuff comes out with much better packaging.  The new Mission Of Burma re-releases were fantastically done I thought.  Great booklets with great and interesting photos and interviews and a great DVD.  I almost never buy CD’s any more (see post below, it’s pointless) but I bought these.  

- Radiohead/NIN (In Rainbows box set + all the packages Trent Reznor put out for Ghosts)

-Catbird Records puts out beautiful releases. 

Who am I missing here? 

NiggyTardust was a success

One thing that almost every commentator has said which I think it complete and utter bollocks is that the Radiohead/NIN model is great, but only for large established bands with loyal fanbases. 

This is not true.

The NIN model (that of varying price levels, from free to hella expensive) is not only the future for indie bands, it very well might just be “the answer”. 

People (including Trent Reznor, who should know better) point to the Saul Williams experiment as why less established bands cannot use the freemium model.  Saul Williams released a self-titled album in 2004.  After three years it sold about 38,000 copies.  In late 2007, with the help of Trent Reznor, Saul Williams offered up his latest album, The Inevitable Rise of NiggyTardust, on his website for either free or $5.  In this first two months with no real marketing or touring at all for the album, Saul had about 155,000 downloads, 28,000 of which were paid.  His paid download rate was 18.3%.  And this was a failure everyone says. 

That is not true. 

First off, Saul made about $140,000 off the album in just two months will minimal expenses.  He had no marketing budget.  I assume he recorded it in Trent’s studio.  He had a couple of samples, one of which cost $10,000.  Musicane, which handled the distribution and backend for the release, received roughly a 20% cut.  “Indie” acts usually make little to no money off their albums.  After only two months, Saul had made a fair amount of money off NiggyTardust.  Now that he’s started touring and promoting the album, he’s only going to make more.  He’s already over 200,000 downloads and I’d be willing to bet he sees his paid download rate increase (earlier downloaders were mainly fans of NIN who had no allegiance to Saul, only Trent.  Now that he’s touring and promoting the album, he’s going to be creating more fans, who will likely be more willing to pay for the album). 

Not to mention the value of having 200,000 people having heard your music and having a database of every single one of their e-mail addresses.  That alone would be worth giving the music away for free.  Now, when he tours, he can just e-mail everybody who has his album and tell them when he’ll be in their town.  He’s also drawing from a pool of people to attend his concerts that is over FIVE times as large as it was prior to the release of NiggyTardust. 

But isn’t an 18.3% paid download rate terrible?  Don’t CD’s have a 100% paid rate?  No, and you’re missing the bigger picture.  First off, between the various file-sharing services, traditional releases likely have a surprisingly small percentage of paid listeners.  Second, 18.3% is great!  If you know you’re going to get roughly 1 out of every 5 people who download your album to pay for it, then all you need to do is increase total downloads.  All Saul needs to do if he wants to make more money this week is to seek to drive more people to his website.  Get a good review, give an interview, play a live show, announce a re-mix contest, engage in any sort of promotion, talk to bloggers, get his name out there any way possible and people will go to his site.  Increasing hit counts for websites is not hard.   If the music is free, more often than not, people will download and check it out.  If you know 1 in 5 of those people will pay for the album?  Well, you just figured out how to make money by giving your music away online.  Congratulations and welcome to the wonder that is the internet.  

Radiohead’s Scotch Mist (+ commentary)

jakoblodwick:

‘They’re doing what comes naturally: making their art, connecting with their fans. They’re just using the tools that are at their disposal, taking off the rules and doing what feels right. And by doing that they *are* the new music business, because that’s what all artists will do. And what will separate good from bad won’t be access to distribution anymore, it’ll be if the art is any good or not, if it CONNECTS with people.

I’m sick of people saying “oh that’ll only work for Radiohead, it’s not the new model for the industry”. Those people need to stop look for the silver bullet, stop looking at what Radiohead is doing *specifically* and look at the paragraph above. The muse they are following *will* work for others, even if the execution is different. If the art doesn’t connect with people it doesn’t stand a chance, though.’

One of the scary things about the music industry now is how few people actually “get it”.  You would think people would be able to see a little bit further into the future and be able to integrate better all the opportunities around them when it comes to technology and realize which traditions need to be abandoned and which need to be maintained.  It’s rare that I find people online that seem to come from the right mindset.  I found Jakob Lodwick’s tumblr last night and as I read some of his posts and about his new project Normative, I will go out on a limb here and say that he “gets it”.  

Jakob, if you’re reading this, I’d love to be able to discuss with you what you plan on doing with Normative and you’re views on the music industry.  My e-mail is at the top of the page.  

compact discs

CD’s are a worthless format. They will die soon.  If you value sound quality or album artwork, you opt for vinyl.  If you value convenience, portability, and affordability, you opt for digital.  There is nothing that a CD does that another format does better.  The future does not involve CD’s, not in any substantive way at least.  

Radiohead + WASTE Central

Today Radiohead announced their own social network, WASTE.  While somewhat corny and plain unneeded, I love the attitude Radiohead has been working with since the release of In Rainbows.  What Radiohead is seeking to do is to give its fans a reason to love them or, in many cases, love them more.  By turning casual fan into a dedicated fan you turn somebody who merely consumes the music you create into somebody who evangelizes the music you create.  Having fans who will act as apostles for your music, proclaiming it throughout the land and internet is one of the keys to being successful in music these days. 

When I was in high school, my favorite band was probably the White Stripes.  Hearing White Blood Cells was a revelation for me and I quickly sought out (and fell in love with) their back catalogue.  At that time in my life I was also a huge fan of Weezer; for a while my top two favorite albums were Pinkerton and the Blue Album.  Why were the White Stripes my favorite band then, the band that I told my friends about and tried to spread though out my social group at the time?

 The White Stripes had (and have) a fantastic message board with multitudes of music lovers of all ages who were eager to talk to you about the music and culture they loved.  I visited the site multiple times a day.  Weezer also had a message board but it was childish and uninformative.  There was no real reason to visit it.   Because the White Stripes had such a vibrant online community of fans I was drawn more to the White Stripes simply because I was exposed to them more.  The White Stripes found a way to engage me as a music fan and, despite me liking the music of Weezer more, I was a bigger White Stripes fan and I did more to promote them among my friends.

Why is this important and how does this relate to Radiohead?  Because both are giving their fans opportunities to be exposed to them more, to get more involved, and a reason to love them more; they mobilize their fans. I loved the White Stripes because, for me, they were a part of this wonderful community of music lovers who would turn me onto all sorts of great stuff and let me do the same.  Radiohead, with their remix contests, live webcasts, and their social network, is giving fans reasons to love them more.  And fans that love bands will tell their friends about them, will blog about them, will comment on other people’s blog posts about them, it goes on and on. 

Not only that but dedicated fans are more likely to buy music rather than download it.  Dedicated fans are more willing to shell out extra money for expensive box sets, like the ones that Radiohead and NIN offered.  Dedicated fans are more likely to go to shows, to bring a friend, and then buy a shirt.  If a band wants to be successful in today’s climate, I would highly recommend they take actions to engage their fans.  It can be as simple as a well-organized and interesting message board, fun and entertaining blog posts by band members, or it can be something more involved like re-mix contests and working to enable and acknowledge fan videos or any of a thousand other things.  Just be creative and make it worthwhile of a person’s time.  

above all else….

Above all else, if the music isn’t good, don’t even bother.  You may be able to hoodwink people for awhile.  If you seek to appeal to people who are not fans of music but rather fans of celebrity or fans of fashion then by all means, have shitty music.  But if you seek to appeal to people who actually enjoy music, you must be good or original or show the promise of those qualities.  The transparent nature of the internet is such that you might be able to fool people for awhile but you won’t be able to bluff your way into anything sustainable

Hello, World

Hi.

An introduction.

My name is Tom. I’m from NY and graduating college this May with a degree in marketing. I’m currently the business manager of two small magazines. I also intern at a small digital marketing firm in new york city that deals with the entertainment industry.

What I’m interested in is music. I love music, more than I should. I have way too much of it. I’m lost without it. What facinates me in life (at this juncture) is the collision of the music business and technology, especially as it applies to “indie” bands.

I have a lot of thoughts about what will be successful now and in the future as far as enabling musicians to make money off their work. But then, everybody has an opinion about that. Why should you trust me? I don’t even know if I can answer that right now. But read what I write. If you think I’m wrong on something, tell me. If you think I’m right, tell me.

The main purpose of this tumblr is to network. I have ideas, thoughts, and plans that I want to bring to fruition. I’m working on them now. However, what I’m most deficient in is contact with similar minded people who are working along similar lines of thought. I hope that by posting what I believe about the music business on here, my writings will be seen by similar minded people and, hopefully, I can meet people that I might work with in the future (hopefully the near future) on bringing new business models to the business industry.